Rep. Nita Lowey to NRC: Consider shorter Indian Point relicensing term

Aug. 18, 2011

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider reducing the 20-year relicensing term for Indian Point to something like five years, telling regulators they have the flexibility to make that change and that replacement power for the 2,000 megawatt nuclear plant could be in place by 2015.

Lowey, in a letter Aug. 15, asked the NRC to consider the change because the agency's 1991 determination that it takes 10 to 15 years to get a plant up and running isn't realistic. She said a new plant could be built "within a few years."